Stephanie Shapiro: Equipment alone won't defend Canada — it's time to back our military families |
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Stephanie Shapiro: Equipment alone won't defend Canada — it's time to back our military families
Canada must address the most critical component of military capability: the people who serve — and the families who sustain them
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Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent announcement launching Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy marks a significant moment in our country’s national defence renewal. Modernizing procurement, strengthening domestic industry and reducing reliance on foreign supply chains are tangible steps toward safeguarding Canada’s sovereignty in an increasingly uncertain world.
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Minister of National Defence David McGuinty and the prime minister deserve recognition for demonstrating commitment in concrete ways. Rebuilding capability requires action, and Canada is rightly investing in ships, aircraft, technology and industrial capacity to meet evolving threats.
Stephanie Shapiro: Equipment alone won't defend Canada — it's time to back our military families Back to video
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But equipment alone does not defend a nation.
If Canada is serious about defence renewal, we must address the most critical component of capability: the people who serve — and the families who sustain them.
The Canadian Armed Forces continues to face recruitment, retention and readiness pressures that cannot be solved by procurement reform. Behind every uniform is a family navigating the realities of military life: frequent relocations, disrupted healthcare access, unstable childcare arrangements, spousal employment barriers and mounting housing challenges. These pressures are not abstract. They affect morale, financial stability, and, ultimately, operational readiness.
Military families operate within a uniquely complex policy environment. CAF members are federally employed, yet the systems that shape their families’ daily lives — healthcare, education, childcare, and professional licensing — fall largely under provincial jurisdiction. When a posting requires a move across provincial lines, families are often forced to start over entirely: new doctors, new childcare waitlists, new licensing requirements and new housing markets.
Canada’s vast geography compounds this reality. Bases are spread across regions with dramatically different housing costs, labour markets and service availability. Unlike most Canadian families, military families do not move by choice. They relocate at government direction — often every few years — absorbing the social and financial consequences each time.
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Within the Department of National Defence, there has been years of ongoing discussions about these pressures. Reports highlight housing shortages. Surveys speak to spousal employment challenges. Conversations acknowledge healthcare disruptions.
But discussion is not the same as diagnosis.
Canada does not currently have a comprehensive, independent, third-party assessment of the state of military family well-being across housing, healthcare continuity, childcare accessibility and spousal employment outcomes. We rely on internal reporting, anecdotal accounts and fragmented data.
Meaningful reform cannot be built on anecdotes alone.
As Canada commits billions toward rebuilding its defence industrial base, it should invest a fraction of that amount to establish a clear, evidence-based understanding of the human infrastructure that sustains it. Without baseline data, we cannot measure impact. Without independent analysis, we cannot identify systemic gaps. And without clarity, we risk repeating cycles of incremental change that fail to address root causes.
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There are three urgent steps Canada should take.
First, recognize personnel and family resilience as core components of operational capability. Family stability is not a peripheral social issue; it is a force multiplier that directly influences retention and readiness. Defence planning must treat it as such.
Second, establish a National Military family Strategy that addresses the structural friction between federal service and provincial systems. Coordinated solutions — particularly in healthcare portability, spousal licensing mobility, childcare access and housing policy alignment — are essential if we expect families to absorb repeated relocations without long-term consequence.
Third, invest in independent, third-party national research to establish a comprehensive snapshot of military family conditions in Canada today. Clear facts must precede durable reform. Data, not anecdotes, should guide the next phase of defence renewal.
Canada is entering a period of historic investment in national defence. We are modernizing what we build. We must also modernize how we support the people who operate it.
Sovereignty is secured not only by equipment, but by the stability and strength of the families who stand behind those who serve. If this government is prepared to rebuild Canada’s defence capacity for the future, it must ensure the human foundation beneath it is equally strong.
The success of our defence renewal depends on it.
Stephanie Shapiro, is COO for Together We Stand Military Families Foundation.
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